A June 5 post on the ministers' Facebook page referred to the event as a forum. So did ads for the event and the candidates' written invitations, said Hall press secretary Julia Smekalina. Parker spokeswoman Sue Davis said she has not seen written materials for the event but said it was referred to as a debate in her conversations with the ministers' group. A member of the group did not return a call Thursday.

"When you're standing there and you're all on stage at the same time and you're each taking questions and you're all answering them and then you make a closing statement, if that's not a debate, I don't know what is. That's just silly," Davis said.

She said the mayor has scheduled three community debates and four forums, not counting the one televised debate Parker has agreed to.

Smekalina said that information has not been communicated to the Hall campaign. A debate, she added, is a televised, moderated, formal event on neutral turf.

"We'd like six just because there are so many issues that need to be addressed you can't do it in one setting," she said. "We're happy doing forums. We want both: Forums in the community as well as formal debates that are open to all of Houston."